The Brilliance of Kristen Wiig’s ‘Secretaries’ Sketch

Often when a former cast member returns to host Saturday Night Live, they trot out their greatest hits. And, sure, when Kristen Wiig took the stage for the fifth time last night, she did return to one of her favorite characters: cranky Aunt Linda, who never seems to understand the point of the movie she’s reviewing (unless that movie is Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie). But Wiig largely did new material, proving how unmatched she is at breathing life into kooky, unexpected characters. It almost felt like the absurdity had been building inside her like potential energy, waiting to be unleashed when she got to her old stomping grounds.

Take Tooty, for instance. In the sketch “Secretaries,” Wiig and Heidi Gardner played Tooty and Trudy, respectively, mid-century secretaries working in a law office for an attorney played by Jon Hamm. (Hamm was one of many special guests over the course of the episode, a sign of how beloved Wiig is.) The presence of Hamm implied that this was going to be a riff on Mad Men, and it was—though only to a point.

Tooty and Trudy looked to be alluring stereotypes of secretaries we’ve seen portrayed countless times in pop culture, but their behavior instead defied all expectations. Hamm’s character, Alan, had hired Tooty because Trudy kept making mistakes. Tooty, however, isn’t much better, opening her desk drawer to reveal that there’s a baby inside. She thought she was picking up Alan’s son; Alan doesn’t have a son. Asked whether Tooty is a first or last name, she responded cheerfully, “It’s a middle one.” No further explanation. When Alan’s sandwich delivery arrived cold, Tootie and Trudy warmed it up between their butts. By the end of the sketch, Tooty, ready to “take a load off,” leaned against her desk and crashed through it, during which chaos her skirt inexplicably flew off. Still, her antics made Alan fall in love with her, though her offer is less of romance than the suggestion to let him “go banoodles on this dog-ass ho.”

Alan’s adoration is an apt metaphor for how it feels watching Wiig on Saturday Night Live. Your affection doesn’t have to make sense, but you can’t help being smitten with her. She draws people into her wacky orbit. “Secretaries” took a setup that looked banal—flighty assistants in a male-dominated corporate world getting things wrong—and drove it to extremes, thanks to Wiig’s energy, her stilted mid-Atlantic accent, and her ability to throw herself through prop furniture. (Gardener offered a great assist as well.)

[Read: The SNL sketch that left the cast helpless]

Wiig’s knack for nudging a scenario to bonkers heights was evident throughout the episode. In “Jumanji,” she portrayed a woman at a dinner party who balked when a board game was suggested as an activity, because she didn’t want to be sucked into the game, as happens in the movie Jumanji. The other attendees began to press her on what exactly she meant by getting “Jumanji-ed.” (Does the game emerge from the board? Or do you get absorbed into the game?) Wiig’s steadfast fear was like an infection, slowly seeping into her scenemates, until suddenly, she had become the reasonable person in this argument, despite maintaining the most ridiculous opinion.

Wiig’s zaniness encouraged the rest of the cast to embrace their goofiness, a fact that was on full display in “La Maison Du Bang!” Framed as a PBS look-back at a 1970s French variety show, Wiig appeared as the pop star Tipi Tornade, who kept swiveling her hips while exclaiming, “Je danse!” The sketch featured a plethora of out-there interludes, including a theme song performed by Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman, and Kenan Thompson busting out his well-worn and always hilarious French accent. Still, Tipi stole the show, popping up again and again like an extremely entertaining poltergeist. (Similarly, the many stars who had cameos in the episode—Paul Rudd, Will Forte, Fred Armisen, Martin Short, Matt Damon, Ryan Gosling—hammed it up but notably didn’t step on Wiig’s toes, deferring to her performances.)

In Wiig’s post-SNL career, her talent has sometimes been underappreciated, as she has moved from more understated work in indie film to bigger-budget projects such as Ghostbusters and the new show Palm Royale. Back at her spiritual home, though, she got the chance to reclaim her crown as the queen of oddball characters. When Wiig is going wild, everyone else rises to her level.